About Tandem Friends School

Tandem Friends School offers a rigorous college preparatory curriculum in an environment built on Quaker values. We are a coeducational day school serving students in grades 5 through 12. Our students receive an education in which intellectual, ethical, artistic, and athletic ideals are pursued. We foster capable students who: value a spiritual, egalitarian, kind, and creative community; thrive on independent, imaginative thought; are fully engaged in learning; and, seek the best from themselves and their community.

Academics

Learning is a cooperative venture at Tandem Friends; the intellectual curiosity of students is paired with an academically distinguished faculty. Our strong college preparatory curriculum meets or exceeds admission requirements of all major institutions of higher learning. But there is a difference. Learning at Tandem Friends is a dynamic process of questioning and dialogue. Teachers invite a sense of authorship in their students. Classroom discussions encourage active thinking, listening, and articulation. Teachers constantly challenge students to realize their intellectual potential.

Athletics at Tandem Friends

Tandem Friends School encourages students in grades five through twelve to participate in interscholastic sports regardless of their previous experience or attained skill level. Our no-cut sports policy allows students to try new sports, or play multiple sports during the year.

Arts at Tandem Friends

Tandem Friends has a long tradition of commitment to and accomplishment in the arts. All students are encouraged to develop and explore their unique potential in all aspects of the creative arts. In the Middle School, fifth through eighth graders take one semester of drama and one semester of art each year. Fifth and sixth graders take a music class; there is an eighth grade rock band. In the Upper School, arts electives abound in digital film, visual arts, drama, and music. Upper School drama productions (three a year) rehearse after school.

Student Life

Every school offers academic classes, dedicated teachers, classrooms and computers, sports fields, gyms and locker rooms. Tandem Friends is no different. What sets us apart is the amazing sense of community that exists between faculty and students, faculty and parents, faculty coworkers, the school and the many organizations our community service projects touch. You can feel it the minute you set foot on campus - a sense of caring kindness and connections to one another.

Support Tandem Friends

Since 1970, Tandem Friends School has educated the young people of the Charlottesville area to truly "let their lives speak." And, just as we teach our students to value mankind and all that each of us has to offer, we ask you to express your support for the teaching and learning that happens here daily through the generous gifts you give.

Foreign Languages

Learning to communicate and read in another language gives students an understanding and appreciation of other cultures, and prepares them to live more meaningfully in a global society. Recognizing that the study of other languages helps students become more aware of their own heritage and of the function of their own language, the school offers courses in Latin, French and Spanish.

Modern language instruction focuses on teaching students to understand the spoken language and to speak it sufficiently well in order to communicate in everyday situations, to be able to gain information from articles or stories written in the target language, and to communicate adequately in writing. Foreign language students also explore different ways of thinking and living by discovering the cultural wealth of the target language in a variety of different countries.

Viewing films and works of art, hearing music, preparing and tasting food, experiencing plays in the target language, celebrating the holidays of different cultures, and traveling and studying in foreign countries gives students deeper insight and understanding of another culture, making their language study relevant and engaging.

Latin begins in grades 6 and 7 as a required subject, and students may continue their Latin study in grade 8 and into the Upper School through the AP level. Latin provides students with the study of Roman culture and history, the etymology of much English vocabulary, and an understanding of the structure of grammar in both English and the Romance languages.

Students normally take three, but preferably four, years of a modern foreign language beginning in 9th grade, although some start their study of French or Spanish in the 8th grade. AP French and Spanish are also offered for those students who are recommended by their foreign language teachers.